This series imo has been one of the worst simply because of the clear judge bias.

So first we had Craig who couldn't say a bad word against Emma and Darren

Then Bruno who loved little louisa and vincent

Then there was/is Arlene who fancies Mark so much its vomit making

I'm not sure about len he tosses and turns a bit.

For the last few series this hasn't happened so much and i am really quite disappointed with it all and hope the producers will do something about it

any thoughts

You missed out one: Arlene's sometimes unecessarily harsh and uncalled for comments about Matt. Especially saying he has the sex appeal of a gnat his face; he was quite annoyed and I don't blame him one bit.
Last edited by Coronis : 18-12-2006 at 20:24

That was really bad. And comparing his performance to 80 year olds in Buenos Aires (who have been dancing it all their lives, and are in fact latinos), whereas Matt is an Anglo Saxon who has learnt it in three days, and done a damn good job.

Sometimes she goes too far in her personal remarks: "The good, the bad and the ugly." She may not mean it in a nasty way, but it comes over like that.

Not another "judges being bias" thread!

I think the judges are great and theyre not really bias. Its just that we all wish they liked our favourites that's all.

Craig liked Emma, but then who didn't? All the judges liked her because she was the one who throughout the whole series danced better than anyone else. Arlene liked Mark, but then most women do, but she was also very fair and would criticise Mark if she didn't like something. Len likes everybody Arlene doesn't and will score higher just to prove a point and to be popular. And Bruno, well he just copies Len. But generally they're all great in their own right.

And this judges being bias thing is getting a bit OTT now. Its been mentioned on more than a few messages, usually by angry Matt fans and its old news. I started a thread praising Arlene and its nice to see so many people writing on there and agreeing how great she is.
Last edited by moonglow : 18-12-2006 at 22:24

I think with Arlene there is more of an issue with the comments she makes than her marks. I do have a problem with her saying that Matt had the sex appeal of a gnat- I just think that is way too personal and cutting, and her point would have been made sufficiently had she said "I didn't think there was enough passion in the dance". Some of the comments she makes to Mark are also quite embarassing when he has his wife and young children in the audience.

I do often find Arlene's marks to be quite inconsistent... but it is difficult to say there is a significant bias because different things appeal to different people, so she is marking to different criteria than the other judges, and different to what I would like. I just wish she would tone down some of her comments.

The thing is when Arlene says Matt has the sex appeal of a gnat then she's only telling the truth. When she said that, a lot of people agreed with her. I personally think he has no sex appeal, whereas, in my opinion, Mark has. Arlene doesn't appeal to everybody but she comes out with some great comments and a lot of people agree with her and some don't. Hearing things like that can be quite entertaining. That's why a lot of people like X Factor, just so they can hear what Simon Cowell has to say.

I think its great that Arlene comes out with comments that are controversial but also how she feels. It would be boring if every judge was "nice".

When Matt did that Argentinian tango he didn't have any sex appeal so I agreed with what Arlene had to say. I love real honesty.

OK, obviously we're going to disagree on this! I won't debate Matt's sex appeal with you as I suspect it will fall on deaf ears, but many people disagree with you, and experienced dancers have spoken up in defense of the intensity and chemistry of their performance.

But that aside, I don't think it would be appropriate to say that to anyone, especially on live TV, under the guise of professional judging. True or not, that degree of rudeness is unnecessary and inexcusable.
Last edited by katie_p : 18-12-2006 at 23:13

I think Len was a Spoony fan to start with. I'm not sure why, that's just what I got off him.


But on the subject of Arlene, it's her comments that I don't like. She can be downright rude and far too personal in her comments at times.
Last edited by quackaquacka : 18-12-2006 at 23:15

Um... I think you can be honest without being rude. Arlene could have simply said it didn't have enough passion.

The thing is tho Katie, these celebrities put themselves up for the show, they know what to expect, especially from Craig and Arlene, so if they can't take the criticism then they shouldn't go up for it.

The BBC hire Arlene for her honest opinion, however brutal it is. Just like ITV have Simon Cowell. They know people like that are really popular. A lot of us want to see judges like this and not the boring others who like everybody. Lets face it, we can't wait to hear what Arlene and Craig have to say.

If I was passionate about a particular dancer it wouldn't bother me what Arlene said. I would still find it incredibly entertaining and interesting to hear.

Coronis, but that would be boring if Arlene spoke like that. People don't want to hear her speak like that, they want the brutal honesty, plus witt with it.

Take away Arlene and Craig and you have 2 boring judges left. Arlene speaks from the heart and says it exactly as it is, and whether you disagree or not with her, an awful lot of people at home, who don't visit forums, love her for what she has to say. Because she says what a lot of us are exactly thinking.

Simon Cowell hasn't got to be the most popular man by being nice.

No, that's not really what I mean. You're right that the celebs have to expect criticism of their dances, because they signed up for that. I just don't think Matt should have to accept criticism about his sex appeal, on live TV. It was unnecessary- she could simply have said it wasn't passionate enough- and it was cruel.

I honestly don't think Arlene's comments add to the show in any way, and many of them are inappropriate given the time the show airs... hence Arlene's "I just want raw sex" comment being edited out of the highlights show, which aired an hour later than the original.
Last edited by katie_p : 18-12-2006 at 23:26

moonglow, a couple of posters on here have been criticised for saying that Emma has chunky thighs and a thick waist. So, by your reasoning, they are "only telling the truth"? would that be a perfectly acceptable thing for Arlene to say to her on national telly?

Where are the boundaries to this? And I don't agree that"They knew what they were letting themselves in for".

As the Monty Python crew say "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition".
Last edited by winenroses : 18-12-2006 at 23:27

I love that quote.... and Michael Palin...
Last edited by Coronis : 19-12-2006 at 00:05

It's ok to ' say what's true' as long as it's not about your favourite celebrity, eh moonglow?

I didn't 'love' Emma nor did a lot of people on here, so Craig's clear bias towards her was misplaced and wrong in my opinion.

I do agree however that it's good to be honest about how you feel on these shows and that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I think everyone should be allowed to 'be honest' about how they feel which goes for this forum to and just because you do not agree with it does not make it unfair. I would imagine if Emma had been criticised more instead of bigged up so much then you would feel differently however.

Apart from some of the personal remarks from Arlene and Craig I really don't have a problem with the judges.

If anything the voting public bias has slightly spoiled the show this year by removing Spoony, Ray, Louisa and Emma well before their time.

Len picked Spoony out in the East Coast/West Coast swing - "That's my boy" was what he said.

I feel that Craig was over the top as far as Emma was concerned - perhaps he was a Spice Girl fan in his youth! Arlene obviously fancied the pants off Mark (probably literally!). Len is more circumspect and marks according to the dance on the day and Bruno usually just copies him.

winenroses,

It was some posters who said Emma had chunky thighs, as you admit, not Arlene, so this doesn't hold as we're talking about the personal things Arlene says, not the posters. So, before knocking Arlene for this, she didn't say it. Ok, she said Matt had the personality of a gnat, but she meant in the dance, so it was dance related and she had every right to say that. She didn't say he had big ears or anything, as that would have been personal. And she wouldn't say that either. She's not as nasty as a few of you make out. Just truthful.

So, lets not criticise Arlene for something she might say. She's getting enough stick as it is from a few posters. Hey, I wish she was my dance teacher any day. She could call me anything she likes if it would improve my dancing.

I agree with the OP - there HAS been bias from the judges this year - more so than in any other series to date, and its left a bit of a nasty taste TBH.

The judges SHOULDN'T have obvious favourites - they are supposed to be impartial and objective. Len is a good example as is the likes of Pauline Quirke - they DO have favourites but no-one has any real idea of who they might be - and its difficult to guess from the comments which have been made by them. But then Len IS a professional judge so knows how to behave and not lay himself open to criticism in this way.

The main culprits were Craig with his Emma bias and Bruno with Louisa and Emma... I don't really have a problem with Arlene - yes she likes Mark but she doesn't mark him up when he does a bad dance - its her insistence on talking "sexy" all the time which annoys me - her marks are usually fair....

batmobile2, hold on a minute,

I'm not bothered if my favourites get criticised, I take it all in good humour, not as seriously as some folk on here. Emma wasn't my favourite dancer but I did like her. If she got criticised then I'm sure Emma would be the first to accept that and take it on board. She wouldn't have a paddy over it. I just love the comments Arlene and Craig come out with, its so what a lot of us at home are thinking.

arlene looks like the kind that takes the tough love approach. I thought her comments to matt were fair. He's a joker type and probably the only way to get through to him is to be brutal. I think she does it to get him emotional and spurs him on to improve his dancing. All her comments are in response to his dancing...I don't think they are personal but people seem to want to take her out of context. As for judges not having favorites...ummm in comps the judges always have favorites...it's part of being human! These judges have been quite fair and the leaderboard has been right all through the series.

moonglow, I know Arlene did not say and probably would not say etc....

I am saying that there is a line to be drawn. Since the X factor and similar, this line has been overstepped. Many people are disappointed with this trend, yourself not included. Many people would not like to see SCD degenerate into X factor standards. Yes, Simon Cowell and Arlene are very strong characters, which can be good, but it can also be bad.

I feel as strongly about this as you do about your view, and I think it is important, but obviously we will have to agree to differ.
Last edited by winenroses : 19-12-2006 at 10:40

The judges have been all over the place sometimes, but I usually agree with their final rankings. My main criticism of them in this series is their continuous overmarking of Emma Bunton...and this has been already covered!

Some say this has been the best series so far. I don't agree...I am beginning to find the whole SCD scene increasingly tedious. Time to switch off the TV and do something more interesting.

I don't think that personal comments which have nothing to do with the dancing are appropriate from the judges,but that's just me.
It was like Craig and his comment to Carole about her chin - what had that got to do with the price of fish?
Carole's reaction was about the best she could have had, laugh it off, make a witty comment and show the comment and Craig up for what it was.
Arelene seems to have to get a dig in about Matt everyweek, what with teacups and gnats - it's just silly.

I am not Matt, but perhaps he would rather someone say he had big ears, than the sex appeal of a gnat.

These remarks affect his family as well as him, so even if a certain poster doesn't think it matters about him, it is disrespectful and inconsiderate to them. It's called good manners.

If Arlene meant 'in the dance', she should have phrased it better. That was definitely the wrong thing to say to any man. He can hardly help not being an 80 year old experienced AT dancer.

I like some of Arlene's helpful comments, but this was not one of them.
Last edited by winenroses : 19-12-2006 at 15:55